5-star defensive lineman Chandavian Bradley commits to Tennessee

Did you have “Lands a 5-star” on your Tennessee football recruiting bingo card? Congratulations, you were right! On Sunday, the Volunteers landed longtime target and 5-star defensive end Chandavian Bradley.

Bradley is right up there with Nico Iamaleava in terms of recruiting victories in the 2023 class. He’s ranked 36th overall in the 247Sports Composite Rankings and comes in as the 5th overall Edge player in the country. Tennessee went toe-to-toe with USC and Texas A&M for his services, and their victory came on Sunday afternoon.

So what is Bradley (6-foot-4, 220 pounds) bringing to the table?

Speed, speed, and more speed. Bradley’s tape is a great example of things that you can’t teach. Bradley is a very athletic player who seems to have a nice combo of both straight line speed and quickness. When he gets going downfield, he can run with even the best wide receivers on the team. There’s even a clip of him keeping pace with his own kick returner on a special teams play.

According to his Hudl page, Bradley runs a 4.52 40-yard dash. I believe it. Arguably more exciting is Bradley’s closing ability. It’s closely linked to speed, but it does not always have a 100% match. That’s not an issue for Bradley. He closes out very fast on the edge, and can run down a lot of ball carriers. If it’s a regular drop back passing play, Bradley has little trouble getting past the offensive tackle.

Bradley‘s player comparison is Brian Burns, and I don’t think there’s a better match out there. His speed and length makes for one of those players that you can probably put in the game pretty early. Like many prospects with his size, he simply needs to get into a college weight room to bulk up. He could also use some refinement in his pass rush moves, but when you’ve got the skills he does, you really don’t need to be a true expert in order to get playing time.